Grey believes Bray can challenge for promotion
Maidenhead & Bray gamely held on for a losing share of the points in Saturday's TVL Division 3B draw with Datchet 2nds, but, after several underwhelming seasons, the side are back in contention for promotion to Thames Valley League Division 2.
Bray haven't managed to challenge for honours over the past few seasons, however, the stated aim of captain Kieran Grey is to get the side back up and he believes he's got a side capable of achieving that.
On Saturday they had to dig in for a share of the spoils as they looked to chase down a mammoth target of 301 for victory against Datchet.
On a flat track with a fast outfield Datchet had racked up the runs, declaring on 300-4 after 50 overs with stellar contributions coming from the bats of Anthony Moorthoti (61), Pete Singh (51) and top scorer Tim Alldis (100).
However, with three wins to their name already this summer and a hatful of runs, Bray were undaunted and chased with a genuine belief they could surpass their target.
Ben Ward Jnr (47), Sachin Moudgil (70), Krish Vaja (39), and Alkesh Vaja (36) kept the visitors just about on track, but, towards the final overs, they fell behind the required rate and had to change tact.
“We've started the season well to be honest,” said Grey. “We’ve lost two games and we should really have got closer in both of those and maybe won the game against Stoke Green.
“We’ve been strong this year and have been scoring a lot of runs which obviously helps.
“The aim is to get back up this year and, at the moment, it's looking like a possibility so we're just going to look to continue playing well.
“The spirit in the side feels pretty good and we should also have a few of our university boys coming back as well in a few weeks which I'm sure will make us even stronger.”
On Saturday's dogged and disciplined batting display, Grey added: “It's always tough when a side scores 300, but we felt like we had a chance to chase it down because the wicket was unbelievably flat and there was a quick outfield, but in the end, we fell a bit short.
“Sachin Moudgil is batting well right now and if he carries on scoring runs, we’ll be very happy with that.
“We needed 10 an over for the last 10 overs, but with two overs left we needed 35 runs and had just lost one of our key batsmen. From there we couldn’t get much more out of the game, so we just tried not to give them (Datchet) any extra points.
The result leaves them fourth in TVL Division 3B on 91 points, 27 adrift of leaders Harefield 2nds who they host in a key tie on Saturday.
“Next we’ve got Harefield 2nds at home,” he said. “We feel good about it and believe we've got a good chance, but it will depend on our availability.”